A natural high potency, low calorie, sweetener known as modified monellin protein could have potential uses in the food and beverage industry, say researchers.

A new study focuses on the sensory characterisation of the natural sweetener compound modified monellin protein (MNEI) for application in the food and beverage industry. The research, led by Rossella Di Monaco from the University of Naples, Italy, the research team determined the detection threshold (DT) and recognition threshold (RT) of MNEI in different conditions typical of beverage processing and beverage consumption.

“This study confirms that MNEI is a natural high-potency sweetener because the sweet taste RT is about 3,000 times lower than the sweet taste recognition threshold of the sucrose measured with the same assessors,” said Di Monaco and her colleagues writing in the Journal of Sensory Studies.